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Topic: 2006 American International Toy Fair (Read 14363 times)

First, again apologies from the staff but unforseen circumstances, and ones out of the site's control of course, just killed our coverage of the event. It's a shame because our man in the field we've sent in the past has always delivered some of the best coverage of the event, but as they say... stuff happens. I'm enjoying reading around the net about everything though, checking out all the sites for their coverage...

-VOTC stuff... I'm actually ok with the Sandperson Bill, but only because there's so many sculpted ones that I'm wanting something "new", and also I think by the pictures it's clear that Hasbro can't hire someone to pose that stuff for ****. They can't seem to get anyone to really make that stuff look pretty... I mean, look at the Floppy Hat Luke's hat. Terribly stupid, but that's them.

The Han looks fantastic but the shirt looks different at the collar than those early photos appeared, doesn't it? The Luke needed posed better to really look better but it looks great. Those are ball/socket elbows by the way, or else my eyes are just so starved for ball/socket joints that I'm missing something here. The Scout Trooper is insane looking. Perfection short of MAYBE having ball/socket hips so he mounts a speederbike properly. Greedo, I like. And his vest looks better than I thought PLUS it contours around the holster a lot better than a plastic vest would while not warping the pistol's handle.

The Lucas Stormtrooper is just really silly... It's a novelty, nothing more, so I could care less. I'm surprised it isn't silver.

Overall I love VOTC and I must have multiples of the whole wave but definitely many multiples of that Scout. I gotta get 20 of that figure at least. Just fantastic.

-Basic Figures Overall... What an F'n Yawn-fest there... Not a lot to look at, not a lot to really get giddy over that even is there, so I guess I'm just a tad let down. I liked a number of the items, don't get me wrong, but it's nothing I"m doing backflips over is all...

-Jerjerrod... he looks great, he looks better than Veers, but again it's a figure lacking knee articulation and a removable hat. The only ways to make an Imperial Officer better at this point. I will dig adding him to the wall of the choked, but he really doesn't stand out as exciting.

-Chief Chirpa... I love him. He has the standard perfect Ewok format... If I had a complaint it's his weight seems to be a bit undersculpted. I recall Chirpa as looking like some Samoan Chief on his throne, all chubby and stuff. the figure looks pretty good though, has the wrist joints, all the other standards, a REALLY crisp sculpt. I like it a lot basically, and since I'm Ewok starved I'm happy to nab one.

-3PO w/Throne... I'm ok with the re-used sculpt but the legs look really nice. Hinge joints work for me since, as Bill Cosby noted, 3PO doesn't have really the same range of motion as a human knee in the films. He can sit, and they did it just as I always envisioned them doing it but they always claimed they couldn't... Amazing they just now caught up with the imagination of customizers.

-Death Star Gunner... Love it. Looks like ball/socket knees there, and articulation like the AT-AT Driver resculpt basically. The extra armor plate is awesome, a holster with blaster is great... Removable armor is good for armybuilders too because, especially in ROTJ, they're seen running around without the blast armor. It also looks to me like it won't be a problem blending in with the POTF2 figure. I love that, and will gladly buy a TON of this figure if I can find it. I want 20 if possible, maybe more.

-Hem Dazon... I'm still bummed no knee articulation on him but I love the figure overall. True to the EU body design. I just can't stand that the 04/05 Cantina Wave got knee articulation but now like Hem isn't and things... Blah.

-Garrindan... I love him but, again, the knee joints would've been nice. I'm anxious to see his little communicator accessory and if it clips to his belt ala Leia's Thermal Detonator... I wonder what he looks like under the hood and if his goggles come off (almost looks like they do). I like him better than the Hem figure sans the knees since Hem's sitting ability in the Cantina would've been nice, but either way I'm liking this figure better right now.

-Momaw Nadon... Pretty nice looking, and like I've said before I really like that my other Hammerheads will look cool along with him. They'll display well together I think. Always good when you don't necessarilly HAVE to retire a figure ya know?

-Foul Moudama... I still like him. It's a cheap way to get a new figure, I'm ok with it because I don't really think we'd have ever gotten an EU Jedi otherwise. I hope now though for Roron Corobb to fill out the 3-Jedi team that protect Palpatine.

-Daltay Dofine... Cool... Dull, but cool and I really wish I could get a lot of those panels to do a whole set-up with droids now, but it's cool irregardless.

-Firefighter... Great figure overall. Nice articulation, nice equipment, a sharp as hell sculpt. Count me in for a team of these guys just because.

-Utapau Clone... With this headache shipping to stores now it's funny seeing him at Toy Fair but he looks great. Super ARticulation, you can't complain, and a rocking paintjob.

-Cmdr. Cody... So is he super articulated? I see ball/socket elbows... I can live without ankle joints, I've always said that, so if they're not there fine, but the ball/socket elbow joints appear to be the reality here. Sculpt is AMAZING looking, but paint aps matching up to the damage seem like maybe they should have worked a little harder on, but overall it looks good. Removable helmet too is great and I can't wait to see the customs of him with that little mini Obi-Wan Holo on his forearm like a little Palpatine giving him Order 66.

If Cody's SA (or damn close) then I'm a happy camper, and I think he is more now than ever, so yay.

-Luke... I love the box from the garage with the gear... This is a figure you kinda don't mind buying again (it seems like its all old parts to me anyway) just to get all the new equipment he comes with. If more figures came with new accessories like that I'd probably buy more repacks.

-R5-D4... Great. Finally... Thanks.

-Sandtrooper... I'd be remiss if I said I am ok with this over the Evolutions Sandtrooper. Hasbro has a better sculpt, use the goddam thing. It looks ok though, I'll buy a couple, but Hasbro can do better I think with this since the sculpts are there. It'll be nice having a grunt is the real positive. So far the only one was in the 4-pack so a black pauldron trooper in a neutral pose is good to have anyway.

-Kit's Starfighter... Looks cool but now I want the R-series droid as a basic figure.

Now this is where it all ends. Am I the only guy that is just sorta not impressed with Toy Fair's display? None of that was a big surprise, and honestly most of it we'd seen already in one capacity or another. Just that handful of figures were new but expected... I figured we'd see some of these other waves that I would think are on their way to stores before too long too...

Most of that stuff we'd already seen though, so how can one get really amped about any of it? I was more glad to get GOOD photos of a couple of those figures like Cody to determine articulation... So overall I didn't miss much since I wasn't at a computer all weekend. I don't feel so bad that I wasn't around here.

I was gone much of Friday and the weekend, so I'm just getting a chance to take a closer look this morning. I like what's coming up, and a lot of it looks great, but I was a little disappointed we didn't see more new stuff than we did. I just thought we might have got further peeks into the rest of the year, beyond the Chirpa wave. But I did like seeing that. Overall...

VOTC/VTSC - I think they look pretty good. The jury is still out on the Tusken Raider, but like Jesse mentioned, its something new/different, and the posing could have a lot to do with it. The rest of the wave looks great I think. I'm really looking forward to the Endor Han, and from the pictures, I think it looks pretty amazing. The Scout Trooper, well, what can be said? It looks great and something we've all been hoping for. Now if it just isn't mission impossible to find any. I'd like to pick up 5 or so, if possible, but we'll see I guess. I really like the Luke X-Wing as well, and I'm glad they re-did this. I wasn't ever completely sold on the POTJ version, although at the time I thought the detailing on the "suit" was pretty good. This is a great Luke figure overall, and I'm looking forward to getting it. Greedo, while still probably not necessarily needed, looks better in the pics than I expected. The vest doesn't seem to look too bad, and I'll pick one up. There still could have been better choices probably, but not too bad for what it is.

Basic Figures - Like it has been said, not a lot here that we haven't seen already...but we did get some better looks at things. I do really like that Tatooine Luke to be honest with you, and his "hope chest" is a neat accessory. The rest of the Tatooine wave looks pretty good to me too, and I think that Hammerhead is one of my most anticipated figures for this year aside from the VOTC stuff. Just a real nice sculpt/paint job on that one the way it looks. It was nice to get a look at some/most of the Endor wave as well. Finally, a 3PO with knee joints and his throne. Can't wait for that one. Just hinge knees, but I'm fine with it. Its not like 3PO has or needs ball joints necessarily anyways. I really like Chief Chirpa, and I've been looking forward to more Ewoks. This figure, along with Teebo from POTJ, show how much better they can make the woks now even compared to the POTF2 days. I hope we see more in the future, including resculpts of Wicket and Logray. Jerjerrod is another welcome imperial, and I'm glad we're getting him. I didn't really have a lot of just "imperial officers" in the collection, so I'm enjoying picking some up this year. Never did see Ozzel here during that time, so I might have to try and pick one up at some point. I hope we see some more in the future, including a Tarkin resculpt. The Death Star Gunner is nice too, and I'm glad to see its a new sculpt. Most of the other stuff we've seen before, but it does look good.

I really like that Commander Cody figure, the paintjob looks nice on that. Overall, I like the basic figure lineup coming up this year...particularly the Tatooine and Endor waves that are on the way later on. I just can't get enough of those OT figures I guess. A lot of the prequel stuff looks really nice as well, especially Cody. The Dofine figure, although I'm not personally overly excited about, does look really nice. Good sculpt there. Overall I just thought we might have seen a little more "new", and I'm hoping we have a little more information leaking out of the Fair to maybe here about some future plans, if we'll see more VOTC figures this year, and if the larger scaled "Unleashed" is coming back beyond the rumored/confirmed Wal-Mart wave of retooled figures. Not much in the way of vehicles really, although the starfighter repaint is kind of neat. I suppose the majority of vehicles we get this year, if any, will be exclusives and that's why they may not have been shown.

I was just reading through the RS write up of Hasbro stuff from Toy Fair, and I noticed this line:

"In 2006, new twists and innovations, combined with a soon-to-be announced fall initiative from Lucasfilm that will thrill fans of all ages, prove that Star Wars toys are a ”Force” to be reckoned with."

Anyone know what the "soon to be announced fall initiative from Lucasfilm" is? Might be nothing big, but it just made me curious.

I was just reading through the RS write up of Hasbro stuff from Toy Fair, and I noticed this line:

"In 2006, new twists and innovations, combined with a soon-to-be announced fall initiative from Lucasfilm that will thrill fans of all ages, prove that Star Wars toys are a ”Force” to be reckoned with."

Anyone know what the "soon to be announced fall initiative from Lucasfilm" is? Might be nothing big, but it just made me curious.

Maybe the official announcement of the 2007 Animated TV Show?Maybe a Fall realease of a MEGA DVD box set of the films?

I guess I have no idea...

On the RS Toy Fair Rundown though, here's a few tid-bits that I was glad to see/read:

- Tatooine Luke: The "hope chest" is filled with goodies! Obi-Wan's hilt, Anakin's hilt, Obi-Wan's pilot head gear (?), training remote, cloak, hat. Wow, this is one complete Luke and well worth re-buying now. Kudos to Hasbro for spicing him up so much... too bad they couldn't do that for the 55th incarnation of Cantina Han.

- DSGunner: Nice to get confirmation that he does in fact have removable armor so you can display one as a DS1 Gunner and one as a DS2 Gunner.

- C-3PO: Nice to see in writing that 3PO's knees do bend so we can settle that one for sure.

My guess is they're striving for some continuity between III and IV. Presumably Obi-Wan flew to Tatooine to drop off Luke and presumably kept the pilot gear just in case. Not sure why he would, given he may have been traveling incognito at the time, so that the clones and the Empire wouldn't notice him, but that's just logic jumping in. Reality is they have some small parts already tooled, so they're throwing them in. I'm happy to have them. They could put a roll of toilet paper in there and it would be fine, too.

That toy fair vader referenced above is over a grand, with reserve still not met. The seller was a buyer on an auction of mine last month, and took 2 1/2 weeks and a non-paying bidder alert before he paid. AFA...

Looking over the Toy Fair items, it has concluded to me, that after I get my 3 Cody's, and few other figures from that wave, I am basically backing down on the time and energy I put into active collecting. I will hunt from time to time, when Hasbro puts out a figure I don't have, one I really want, or one that is a huge improvement over a past one. I've enjoyed the hunt but not so much lately. It is getting to be a burden. The Endor wave does not have anything at this time that sticks out to me as a must have (I guess we are all waiting to see what the Luke will look like) and to be honest, only the R5 truly interests me from the Tatoinine Wave. Perhaps I'll change my mind as they get closer to release, but after Coruscant, I just don't see me forking over alot of time and energy to the line for the rest of the year. After what we saw that Hasbro could do in the ROTS line for the $, the Saga is becoming a disappointment to me. Don't take me wrong, I love some of the figures, but by this far into ROTS, I loved much more of the figures.

Logged

"For too long gentleness has been equated with weakness. Yet it takes more strength to be gentle than to be mean."